A Sunday Ride

Seeing as not much and too much is happening at the same time, and I'm not getting anything written down at all, its time I did something.  So I'll tell you about my Sunday ride.

Every Sunday (mostly) I meet up with three other guys and go for a ride.  Sometimes nobody turns up, sometimes I don't, sometimes we get less than four.  Actually, it's unusual we get four.  It's not a testosterone-fuelled blitzfest, nor is it necessarily a sedate amble.  Nothing dictates your speed, there's not a 'no drop' policy in force, and you're not obliged to keep up or slow down for anyone else.  There's a turnaround point where we join up, chat for five or ten minutes, then ride back to the start point in much the same fashion.

Yesterday was myself and one other.  I'll call him John, cause that's his name.  John is a strong rider, and is generally stronger on the flat than I am.  Up short hills he just powers on at the same rate while I drop back a gear or two and spin faster to try to keep up.  He's also a better descender than me.  He rides motorbikes for enjoyment, and is pretty seriously into it, so he has better skills than I do at speed.  We swapped the front going out to the turn-around and had a light tailwind, which of course means headwind going back.  This middling weather brings people out a lot, and there were a lot of riders out on the regular route we ride.  In a few weeks it will get colder in the mornings and I reckon numbers will drop off.  It'll get darker too, so the lights will make an appearance soon.

We also have a pair of Gary's to complete the four.  To be honest, I don't know if they're Gary, Garry, Garey or otherwise, I've never asked.  One is a strong flat rider, who usually tows us outbound at a fair pace.  The other is happy to pull his 25km/h from start to end and meet up.  It's a good bunch to be involved in.

There's the obligatory post-ride coffee, supplied by whoever reckons its their turn, combined with more talk regarding whatever.  Motorsport, football, politics, etc.  Typical stuff.  Then we part ways till next weekend, or whenever someone thinks they'll be back.

I won't bore you with the in-depth stats, but 37km @ 29.7km/h is what we ended up with.  Last sunday we ticked the 30km/h average box on the to-do list for the first time, probably thanks to a tow out and a good pickup for a little way coming back.

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